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(No Model.) 3 Sheets Sheet '1. W. L. BUNDY. RIBBONMEGHANISM FOR TIME REOORDERS, &c. No. 594,725.

Patented Nov. 30, 1897.

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RIBBON MECHANISM FOR TIME REOORDERS, &c.

Patented Nov. 30, 1897.

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I W. L. BUNDY. RIBBON MECHANISM FOR TIME REGORDERS, &c. No. 594,725. Patented Nov. 30,1897.

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NITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

WILLARD L. BUNDY, OF BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE BUNDY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

RIBBON MECHANISM FOR TIME-RECORDERSHSLQQ SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 594,725, dated November 30, 1897.

Application filed December 26, 1896. Serial No. 616,994. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that LWILLARD L. BUNDY, of Binghamton, in the county of Broome, in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Workmens Time- Recorders, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates, primarily, to workmens time recorders, and particularly to mechanisms for automatically changing the direction of the longitudinal movement of an inking-ribbon, whether such mechanism is used in a time-recorder, type-writing machine, or any other kind of a machine or apparatus employing an inking-ribbon as the medium for making a record, imprint, or impression of a sign, symbol, or other character.-

My object is to provide a character-printing mechanism with a novel improvement, whereby the longitudinally-moving or intermittently-fed ink-ribbon or inking medium is through its. own movement or by it automatically reversed as to the direction of said movement. This is shown as accomplished by reversing the feed mechanism whereby the ribbon is traversed, as by winding it from one spool onto another. The ribbon is provided with a suitable recess, aperture, opening, or hole adapted to suitably engage at a given point or time with a vibratory, oscillatory, or swinging lever in suchmanner that its longitudinal movement will actuate said lever to shift or reverse the feed mechanism and thereby reverse the movement of said ribbon.

Great trouble has been heretofore had in connection with machines employing spools intermittently or otherwise actuated so as to wind the ribbon from one spool onto the other, arising from the failure or'neglect to manually reverse the feed mechanism, whereby the ribbon, being all wound onto one spool, becomes torn or broken or drawn so taut as to stop the machine or to fail. to print on account of the fact that the ribbon is very often. pinned or connected to a strip of fabric not inked. It is also a fact that very many ribbons are prepared with very little if any ink adjacent to its ends sodas to become inoperative as to those parts as a printing medium.

My invention is here shown asapplied to a workmans time recorder to illustrate the principle thereof, it being a fact that it can be readily applied to type-writing machines or many other kinds of machines or appara tus using a longitudinally-traversing inking medium, with possibly some slight changes of form of some of its parts, to adapt it to its new position or relation to the feed mechanism or to a different feed mechanism. It is constructed as follows, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a workmans time recorder, omitting or breaking away some of the parts thereof which have no relation to this invention in order to better show those which do appertain thereto. Fig. 2 is a rear elevation thereof, showing the feed shifting or reversing leverthrown over to the right, as when winding the ribbon onto the lower spool from the upper one. is a like View of the same, showing the oscillatory shifter-bar in dotted lines and the other parts, normally more or less covered by it, in full lines and in position to. wind the ribbon onto the upper spool from the lower one. Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of the spooldriving ratchets, their actuating and stoppawls, the vibratory bar carryingthe driving-pawls, and part of the rod connecting it to the driving mechanism, the pawls being in engagement with the'upper-spool ratchet. Fig. 5 is a like view of the same, showing the pawls in engagement with the lower-spool ratchet. Fig. 6 is a rear elevation showing the shifting-levers and spool-driving ratchet in elevation and the spools and ratchet-driven gearing actuating them. Fig. 7 is a front elevation showing the shifting-levers partly in dotted lines and the ribbon-spools, gearing, and ribbon in full lines. Fig. 8 is a top plan of a shifting-lever detached. Fig. 9 is a front elevation of the same. Fig. 10

is a plan view of a piece of ribbon provided with an opening with which the shifter engages to be rocked by its longitudinal movement.

The time-recorder here shown belongs to Fig. 3'

the key-actuated type or class, for which several patents have heretofore been issued to me, and therefore is only generally described, as this invention only relates to the ribbonfeeding mechanism.

A front plate 2 and a back plate 3 are suitably secured together by cross-bars 4, and the different shafts or arbors shown are suitably journaled in or carried by said plates. A shaft 5 is suitably connected to a clock-movement and drives the gearing 6 7 8 9 to actuate the time-wheels 10 and 11. The insertion and turning of a key into a keyhole in the boss 12 swings the frame a to actuate the impression-platen (broken away) mounted upon the bar 13, secured to the rock-shaft 14, and by suitable intermediate connections causes the arm 15 to be vibrated, reciprocate the rod 16, and swing the pawl-bar 17. The ribbonspool shafts 18 are suitably journaled, each having a driving-gear 19 and a driving-pinion 20, suitably mounted to be driven by the ratchet-gear 21, journaled upon an arbor 22. The ratchet-driving pawls 23 24 are pivoted or otherwise mounted upon the pawl-bar 17, each pawl being provided with a pin 25. Stop-pawls 26 can also be used, if desired, each provided with a pin 27. A tripper 28, provided with slots 29, is loosely mounted upon the studs 30 and adapted to be vertically reciprocated. It is also provided with inclined faces 31 32, which respectively engage with the pawl-pins 25 and 27 and throw one set of pawls out of engagement with a ratchet and permit the other set to reengage. Upon a stud 31 a shifter a is pivoted provided with fork-arms 33 and 34, which are adapted to engage with a pin 35 upon said plate and lift it to throw the upper pawls 23 26 out of engagement with the upper ratchet, as seen in Fig. 5, and permit the lower pawls to engage with the lower one, or lower it to throw the lower pawls out of engagement with the lower ratchet and permit the upper ones to engage with the upper one, as seen in Figs. 3 and 4. To support the tripper when raised, a swinging spring'actuated hook 36 engages with a pin 37 upon the back plate, as shown in Fig. 2. Then the lever a is swung from the position in Fig. 2, the pin 38 thereon engages with a wedge-faced lug 39 upon said hook to force it out of engagement with the pin 37 and release said tripper to be lowered by the engagement of the upper arm with the pin lVhen thus lowered, the lower faces 31 engage with the lower pawls 24 and 26 and wedge them away from the lower ratchet. This same movement permits the upper pawls to engage with the upper ratchet. This pawland-rachet mechanism drives one or the other of the ribbon-spools.

The lever a is operated by the following mechanism: Angular levers 40 41, alike in construction, are pivoted upon the back plate, each comprising a body provided with a stud 42, an angular arm 43, an angular extension 44 thereon, and a head 45, comprising an arching or convex body sloping to a point and lateral arms on either side. These levers extend through slots 46 in the back plate into proper position for their heads to engage fricti onally with the ribbon 47, which is conducted from the spools over guides or rollers 48. In Figs. 2, 5, and 7 the ribbon is being wound onto the lower spool and this continues until the end is nearly reached, when the head will suitably engage with the opening or rccess 49 therein, the laterals over the head regulating the extent of such engagement. The ribbon is then substantially, if not actually, unwound from the upper spool. Then as the downward feed of the ribbon continues the strain will swing the lever 40 and through the engagement of its pin 42 with an arm 50 on the shifter will swing the shifter over into the position shown in'dotted lines in Fig. 3, unhooking the hook 36, forcing the tripper 28 down, throwing out the lower pawls, and letting the upper ones into engagement with the ratchet to drive the upper spool to wind the ribbon from the lower one. The upper movement of the ribbon will eventually, when near the other end, reverse the feed again, through the engagement thereof with the head upon the lever 41, by swinging it to throw the shifter into the position shown in Fig. 2 by the engagement of the pin 42 with the arm 51. In this manner the direction of the feed of the ribbon is automatically effected by the positive engagement of the ribbon with a shifting-lever, the swinging of said lever by the movement of the ribbon, and the resultant release of one spool from its actuating mechanism and bringing the actuating mechanism of the other spool into engagement with it, thus alternately feeding the ribbon in opposite directions and winding it from one onto the other. positive engagement of a shifter-head with the ribbon.

It is evident that by slightly changing the form of some of the parts this invention can be readily applied to type-writing machines as Well as many other machines or apparatus using or employing a longitudinally-movable ribbon in which it is necessary from time to time to reverse the movement of said ribbon.

Although I show a hole 49 in the ribbon, I do not limit myself to that alone, as it is evident thata loop, eye, band, stud, or other device can be used thereon or therein with which the shifter can suitably engage, the shape of the head being, if necessary, suitably changed to enable it to properly perform its function of engaging with or becoming engaged by the ribbon.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

1. As a means for operating a spool-reversing mechanism, a lever for operating the same standing at an angle to and having its free end engaging frictionally with the ribbon upon a fixed line intermediate of its width,

This is all accomplished by the IIO combined with said ribbon and with said reversing mechanism whereby said lever will positively engage with said ribbon at a fixed point upon said line whereby its movement after such engagement will reverse said ribbon movement. v

V 2. The combination with the ribbon, and ribbon-spools, of separate, unconnected, pivoted levers having their free ends respectively.

engaging frictionally withsaid ribbon upon a fixed line intermediate. of its width adj acent" points upon a fixed longitudinal line near its ends respectively, whereby the strain exerted by the moving ribbon will actuate the shifter then in' such engagement to throw one pawl out of engagement with its ratchet and the other pawl into engagement with its ratchet and reverse the movement of the ribbon.

4. The combination with an ink-ribbon having an opening near each end,.its spools, and a separate ratchet-and-pawl device for separately actuating one spool independently of the other, of a shifter having a head normally in frictional engagement with said ribbon and thereby caused to enter said opening when it reaches it by the movement of said ribbon and thereafter be swung by the moving ribbon and shift one pawl out of engagement and the other into engagement and reverse the movement of the ribbon.

5. The combination with the ink-ribbon, its spools, and pawl-and-ratchet mechanisms for actuating them, of a swinging pawl-carrier to which the pawls are connected, and a vertically-reciprocating tripper actuated by the movement of the ribbon alternately engaging with the actuating-pawls to shift one out of engagement and the other into engagement with its ratchet to rotate each spool separately.

6. The combination with the ink-ribbon, its spools and actuating-pawls and ratchets, of a swinging pawl-carrier, a vertically-reciprocating tripper alternately engaging with the actuating-pawls to swing one or the other into or out of engagement with its ratchet, and a lever engaging with said tripper to raise or lower it.

' 7. The combination with an ink-ribbon provided with openings near its ends, its spools, ratchets and their actuating-pawls, of a swinging carrier between said spools and upon which said pawls are pivoted, a vertically-reciprocating tripper provided with wedging faces adapted to engage wedgingly with pins upon the respective pawls, a vibratory lever having fork-arms alternately engaging with said tripper, pivoted shifters each adapted to engage with lateral arms upon said lever to vibrate it, and provided with a head in frictional engagement with said ribbon and adapted to positively engage with it when it meets one of said openings and thereafter to be swung by the strain of the moving ribbon to vibrate said lever and shift said tripper to throw one pawl into and the other out of engagement with a ribbon-spool ratchet and reverse the movement of the ribbon.

8. The combination with an ink-ribbon, the spools upon which it is wound, and their separate ratchets upon their shafts and actuating-pawls, of separately-swinging shifters each having one end normally in frictional contact only with the back of said ribbon and adapted to positively engage with it separately at fixed points near its ends respectively, whereby the strain exerted thereon by the subsequent movement of the ribbon will swing the shifter then in positive engagement to throw one pawl out of and the other into engagement with its ratchet and reverse the movement of the ribbon.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 21st day of December, 1896.

WILLARD L. BUNDY.

In presence of- ALEX. CUMMING, ASA J. CUMMING. 

